Estimating software for NZ residential builders. See every material, labour hour and assumption before you send the quote. Free plan, no credit card.
CostMate is estimating software for New Zealand residential builders — solo operators and small crews pricing renovations, decks, bathrooms, fences and additions. It builds the estimate and the quote you send. It is not job-management software, and it is not trying to be.
You pick the job type and describe the work. CostMate returns a structured estimate: the materials with quantities, the labour broken into phases and hours, the assumptions it made, and the exclusions worth putting in front of a client before they sign.
Every material line carries the supplier the price came from and the date it was last updated, so you can check a number before you put your name on it rather than after.
From there it produces the client-facing quote. Inside CostMate the working number is called an estimate; what the client reads is the quote. Same numbers, different document.
There is also a free Quote Checker that reads a quote you have already written and flags scope gaps for review, and a set of free calculators and trade tools that need no account at all.
This is the part worth understanding before you trust any estimating tool that mentions AI.
In CostMate, every quantity, price, labour hour, grade and modifier is computed by a rules engine. The language model is not allowed anywhere near them — it writes only the words: the scope summary, the assumptions, the exclusions, the variation notes. That separation is enforced in code by an allow-list, not by asking the model nicely.
The practical difference is that the same job entered twice returns the same numbers, and every figure can be traced back to a rule and a source rather than to a sentence a model produced. A tool that lets a model generate the quantities cannot offer either of those things.
Pricing is in NZD and comes from Dayle ITM and PlaceMakers trade pricing loaded into every account, including the free one, so there is nothing to upload before you get a first estimate. On a paid plan you can upload your own supplier pricing, and it takes priority over the built-in baseline.
Scope checks reference NZ Building Code clauses — E2, E3, H1 and B1 (Structure) among them — and are included for review, so you can verify them against your plans and confirm with the BCA before quoting. They are advisory: CostMate flags what is worth checking, it does not issue a determination.
It is built in Auckland by a working carpenter, which is mostly relevant because the job types, the wastage allowances and the labour phases are the ones an NZ residential builder actually meets.
There is a free plan with no credit card, and a 30-day trial of the paid features that also needs no payment details. If the trial ends you drop to the free plan — nothing you have built is deleted, and sent quotes stay accessible whatever happens to your subscription.
Current plans and what is in each are on the pricing page. The walkthrough shows the flow end to end.
An estimate is a starting point you check, not a number to send unread. Confirm prices against your own supplier accounts and anything structural against your plans and the BCA before you quote.